Errg... What time is it?

I sat up and scratched my eyes. I was in a forest, in a little open spot where the sun shone through. It seemed pretty calm, with birds chirping and the warm rays of the sun beaming down on me. Where was I?

Ah. Right. I was sent to another world by some angel twat, along with a young high school girl. Alright. Let's survey the area. I was currently in a forest, with massive amount of foliage covering mostly everything. There were some berries growing off a vine, similar to a grape. Were they edible? 

I picked one off of the vine and looked at it. Suddenly, some holographic text popped up. 

[Crimson Jewel] 

<A red juicy berry that grows on a vine. Despite it's appealing look, it tastes bitter and makes the user dangerously drunk, to the point of passing out and the high possibility of liver damage. One berry can be deemed fatal.>

Jeez, I probably would've died if I had eaten one. What next?

I instinctively tried to put the berry in my pocket. Instead, my hand ruffled against a leather like surface. What was that? It was a small leather pouch, with hardly any distinct features whatsoever. I don't remember bringing this with me. I dropped the berry in the bag, then tried to put my hand back into it. I couldn't feel anything. I looked inside. For some reason, inside the bag was an empty black void, and my hand had disappeared into the darkness. I put my hand in deeper. Then my arm. Then my shoulder? How far deep does this bag go?

"I need to look at my stats," I though to myself. I though of the word 'stats', and without a single pause, a holographic panel popped up.

================================================================================================

<Seven Huang> <18 years old> <Male>

[Health: 100/100]    [Mana: 10,000/10,000]

<Technology Enthusiast:> Any technology involving some sort of weaponry or efficiency gets him/her excited.

<Cooking Enthusiast:> Loves to cook new and exciting things.

<Innovator:> Likes inventing new things.

<Medieval Magic Distaste:> Dislikes using magic that looks medieval, for instance, swords and arrows. Will generally accept more modern looking magic or magic that is deemed more convenient.

<Scientist:> Uses science.

<Show-off:> A great way to gain attention but doing it too much is a hubris and eventually causes trouble. Causes paranoia.

<Paranoia:> Makes the person wary and troubled in trivial situations, and any attempt to hide something is done in extreme detail. Lowers showing off. Will usually carry a hidden weapon. Causes more paranoia.

<Gunslinger:> Uses guns. A lot.

<Airhead:> Can be kind of stupid sometimes.

<American Nationality:> Once lived in America, has American culture.

<Other Worlder:> Came from another world.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Skills:]

[Branch Off]: 

• When the skill reaches a certain level, it can rank up, and branch off. This is the divine ability. Normal magic will only get bigger and better and never branch off. Branch off-ing magic is not native to this world. For example, If you have a fireball magic ability, you can branch it off into 5 different other abilities. Fire Lance, Fire Charge, Wall of Fire, Bouncing Fire, and Scorched Heal. From these five abilities, you can unlock 1 new ability. The more you rank up to a certain point in any skill, you will be able to have the choice to choose another ability, even having the choice to get an ability from another branch. But beware, you can only choose 2 branches. Your secondary branch can only be upgraded twice. Your primary branch can be upgraded 5 times. Upgrading may not only require levels, but also certain materials and mana points. You cannot use the abilities you used to rise up to another level. For example, if you got Fire Lance, and then ranked up to get Flame Spear, you can no longer use Fire Lance. Only your basic weapon from which you branched off from will you be able to use. If you want, you can reset your branch-offs in exchange for a specific crystal, so you can choose a different pathway next time.

[Merge] [Branch Off] [Level 1]:

• Able to mix ingredients together with perfect precision, with materials that the user is holding or has in their Storage Pouch. When the user wants to make something, they can simply think of it, and with the proper materials, can create it in the hand or in the pouch.
• The more you use the ability, the more higher leveled you get, and the more levels you get on that skill, the more things you can combine. Uses mana.

[Appraisal] [Branch Off] [Level 1]:

• Able to see and identify unknown substances, as long as you have a higher power level than what you are identifying.
• Appraisal gets better the higher your power and your ability level. Uses mana.

[Fireball] [Branch Off] [Level 1]:

• Shoots a ball of fire. Simple enough. Uses mana.

[Energy Shot] [Branch Off] [Level 1]:

• Exclusive to <Seven Huang>
• Can shoot small energy shots, similar to that of an airsoft gun.
• Energy can be held and suspended, and can be absorbed by batteries. Uses mana.

[Mana Influx] [Branch Off] [Level 1]:

• Divine ability from Tenis that gives the user 20x as much mana as a normal person in this world. Talk about cheating.

================================================================================================

Wait. Why the heck was I 18 years old? Did my age change?

'Sorry Seven, I decided to change your age in this world to suit the environment better.'

Who's there? Oh wait. It's Tenis. He's just speaking to me in my head.

'Yeah! I can do this now. Go look at your other stats, I'm sure you'll like it.'

Alright! lets see here. Ooh! This branch off reminds me of a game called "Balloons Building Defense", where you upgrade towers in tiers and pathways so they get better! It's sad that I can't use the previous old skills.

'Alright, just to clarify: You have your starter skill, which is always there for you to use. You have the choice of 2 pathways out of 5, of which 1 of them can be upgraded twice and the other one upgraded 5 times. Each pathway upgrades upon itself, except when they don't. You may even not want to upgrade a pathway for that reason! Each level upgrade requires experience in that ability and some materials to allow you to move up. If you get a certain crystal (purposely made for this reason), you can reset your pathways and choose another set of pathways. Although, I'm pretty sure the locals are going to be pretty skeptical about the crystals.'

Have I told you that you kind of talk to much?

'I'm sorry! It's just that this is really interesting and I really want to make sure you fully understand, especially with that "airhead" trait.'

Oh shut up. It's fine, I understand. Anyways, although I'm not a fan of magic, lets see what I can do with it.

I scanned the local flora and set my sights on a cyan plant with blue bulbs. 

'Quick tip, you don't have to say the skill to actually do it, you just have to imagine it and say it in your mind.'

Thanks Tenis. Alright. Appraisal!

A holographic text appeared.

[Healroot]

<A root that has medical healing properties. Due to having anti-bacterial liquid in it's bulbs, it can essentially be used as a bandages and disinfectant at the same time.>

Oh! That one's nice! I should probably grab a lot of those.

I went all over the forest floor, picking up Healroot and Crimson Jewels. Eventually, I landed upon a dirty road. It wasn't much, but at least it led me somewhere. As I walked, I saw lots of things I recognized. Bamboo like stalks. Vines hanging off of trees. White fluff like cotton growing off of trees. I quickly used appraisal on all of them.

[Bamboo]

<A stalky plant that grows in massive patches. Grows tall and fast, and can be a substitute for wood.>

[Elven Vines]

<Named after its pale blue color, it is relatively strong and stretchy, and can be used as a proper binding.>

[Fur Bulbs]

<Fluffy bulbs of soft flora that, once harvested, can be spun into a thread. Grows on Fur Trees.>

These are all so good crafting materials! And speaking of crafting materials... I remembered I had an ability called Merge, that allowed me to combine things together. Maybe it can be used to put things together without using my hands.

I quickly got to work. I snapped the thin bamboo stalks and bundled them up. After I pulled several rows of vines off the trees, I peeled a bundle of fur bulbs and placed them onto the ground. Everything was set into neat orderly groups, and they would create my very first weapon.

I put three bamboo tubes together, while casually placing a heap of elven vines on it. Using Tenis' tip, I thought, "Merge!"

In a flash of light, the bundle of vines and bamboo sticks had become a long singular barrel. I couldn't even see any binding, just as I had imagined. Using some fatter bamboo sticks and some more vines, I used Merge to get a rifle stock, and with that, I merged the barrel and the stock together. 

I merged more bamboo to get a long curved stick. I then merged that into the front of the barrel, to form the ends of a crossbow. Using the stretchiness of the vines to my advantage, I affixed the vines to the ends of the crossbow and the other end to a simple triggering mechanism, and after a simple merge, I had a fully completed crossbow.

It looked pretty good, despite the fact that it was made of bamboo. So to fix that, I crammed some wood chips and bark to the inside of the bamboo and merged them together, making the bamboo a mish-mash of different wood types. For the arrows, I took some sticks off the ground, and attached Crimson Jewel berries to the end. That way, they'd be lethal.

Should be the right time to test it out right? I looked around. There only seemed to be more plants and more trees, nothing really to use it on. I looked to the right. More trees and plants. I looked to the left. More trees and pl-- wait. What was that over there? Is it a rabbit? It looks like a rabbit.

Slowly, I notched a poisoned arrow onto the string and lifted the crossbow up. Steady, steady, steady... FIRE!

The string snapped with a satisfying sound as the arrow flew through the air. Within a second, the arrow had hit it's target, and with a yelp and a cry, the rabbit came hobbling out of the bushes, before collapsing in a heap on the ground. Guess the poison actually worked.

I got up, crammed the rest of my leftover materials into my endless pouch, and headed over to the kill site. Oh god, it was still twitching. I really didn't want to see an animal suffering, but at the same time, I didn't want to beat it with a rock. I'm not good with close combat. 

So I waited. After a few minutes of jittering and kicking, the rabbit lay silent. I sighed. Finally it was dead. That scene was pretty hard to watch, so I'm glad it didn't last long. I picked up the rabbit and put it into my pouch. Surprisingly, that big of an animal was placed inside, and the pouch didn't seem to be getting fuller. Actually, from the outside, it looked like a completely empty pouch.

'Your appraisal skill is eligible to be upgraded to the next level. Please select a pathway or say, "Not Right Now." '

Wait, a skill upgrades that quickly after I only used it a couple times? I guess this is the beginning, so lets have a look. 

A holographic screen appeared. On it, listed the Appraisal skill branching off into five different pathways. They were: Search, Intercept, Combinations, Trace, and Scan. What did these do? Lets check.

[Search]:

<Allows you to be able to locate the positions of enemies. Nearby enemies will appear to glow, no matter if hidden by another object.>

[Intercept]: 

<Use mana and mental power to interrupt an enemy's thoughts. Great for confusion and stopping attacks.>

[Combinations]:

<Allows you to see common combinations of newly appraised materials. Useful in crafting.>

[Trace]:

<Allows you to have a holographic arrow track trails and footprints, directing you towards either animal, friend or foe. Great for tracking animals or hunting down criminals.>

[Scan]:

<Allows you to scan for underground materials. Great for crafting.>

Oh man! Everything here looks so awesome and good! I want to choose them all! Intercept is overpowered, and Trace would be really handy! And Scan, that ability could be really useful for mining and finding the best materials possible!

I sighed. Well, I guess I can't have them all. I guess I can choose something I actually need, so I'll choose Search.

'New Ability acquired. Search can now be used alongside Appraisal.'

Awesome! Now lets see where the heck everything is.

"Search!" I thought. In an instant, a ripple seemed to flow around me lighting up what enemy it touched. The ripple extended for a little bit, before landing on something. Whatever that something was, the group glowed from the ability. I quickly ran to where the action was happening, and saw a group of bandits. 

Now, I was on top of an overhead cliff overseeing everything. The valley, the flowing hills and forests, and most importantly, the group of bandits that was battling a carriage. There seemed to be seven bandits battling two guards and-- wait. IS THAT YUKI??

I had completely forgotten about Yuki. When I woke up, she wasn't even there, so I thought we spawned in different locations. I guess she woke up first and left me to the wilderness. Some partner that is.

She didn't seem to be doing too hot, despite already having the Fire Spear ability. She was fighting 3 against 1, so I had to intervene. I notched a poison arrow and shot it at the first bandit I aimed at. When it hit, he seemed to wobble, before collapsing to the ground in a heap. The guard that was fighting him seemed confused, after seeing his opponent simply collapse. The other guard had knocked out a bandit, so the odds were moving ever so slightly in our favor. But there were still five bandits remaining, and these guys were more heavily armored.

I notched another arrow and aimed straight for the guy's waist. Just as I fired the shot, he seemed to sidestep, and the arrow stabbed the earth instead.

I grimaced. The bandits seemed to have some type of skills or magic that allowed them to completely dodge attacks. I began to notch another arrow, only to realize I didn't have anymore. I had used my last one. 

Now I didn't know what to do. It was still 5 against 2, due to the fact that a guard got downed. So I decided to rationalize. I had a fireball ability myself, and a personal energy shot just for me. I created a fireball in my right hand, and in the other hand, poured energy into the fireball. Now with this rationalization, the fireball was getting dangerously unstable, burning, shaking, and sparking, all at the same time. I finally burst out of my hiding spot on top of the cliff and yelled, "Hey! Catch this!" and threw the ball of churning fire and energy at the bandits.

On one hand, all the bandits turned to my direction, clearly distracted from who they were fighting. On the other hand, I had actually thrown the fireball a little tad high, so now it was heading towards Yuki.

Yuki understood. She summoned her Fire Lance, and with the handle of flame, smacked the unstable ball straight into the middle bandit's chest.

Perfect.

And without a second to lose, the fireball exploded in the force of an EMP blast mixed with a fire bomb. Electricity shook the ground, and fire wreathed the sky.

After the flames died down, what were left was five unconscious and badly beaten bodies of the bandits. Sucks to be grouped up together so tightly. I marveled at my achievement, until I realized everyone was looking at me.